Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good morning, Michael and Dragon. I awakened it for.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
And how Amongst my first thoughts was I winter if
Michael got to see his mom, and I sure hope
that Dragon feels better.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Well, you got me.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I really am a goober. You know that's that actually
means a lot. Yeah, I know, I know it's it's
you're being funny too. But I did get to see
my mom, and I'd rather not talk about it. I uh,
(00:36):
it was. It was a horrible drive down, despite using
the KdV R Pinpoint weather app so I could decide
which route to take. Is I as I was driving?
I mean, I'm looking and I'm looking at the storms
and I'm trying to figure out okay, and and by
the way, you know, so I finished the program on
on Saturday. Uh, what's your name? Dragon?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I still wore here.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You know what's weird this? I may need a new
cable because everything's got that.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Crackly noisy tenn sound to it.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yes, real tenny sounds, So I must need a new.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Maybe it's just you, you.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Know, it could be me. It could be that you know,
you just sounded like crap for years. Well, maybe I
just need to clean my ears. Out maybe that's it.
But I I get in the car Saturday after I
finished the show to make what should be a five
and a half hour drive, and about eight hours later
I finally get there because I first, the first mistake
(01:37):
I make is now I leave here at like right
at one o'clock, I mean two, you're gone. Yeah, but
you know the show if I told because Damien was
filling in Saturday, I said, now, listen, I got to
pack up and get out of here. We don't have
time to talk. I got it. I got to hit
the road, and you know, told him why, and he's like, yeah,
find just hang up and go. So I had everything
packed up and I and I jump in the jeep
(01:58):
and I I had South twenty five and Tamroyd sent
me a text and said it's snowing like crazy outside.
And sure enough, it was snowing like it was snowing
like crazy here at studios. I get to about Lincoln
Boulevard on the twenty five South and it's there's nothing.
It's like dry highway.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, And so now I'm and I know it's against
the law, but cost my cares. So now I've got
my phone open over here, so I and I get
the app open so I can see where where the
storms are moving. And it looks good until you get
to Monument and sure enough you get south of the castle
of Castle Rock and the roads turn pretty snow packed.
And so now I'm driving about forty miles an hour,
(02:37):
and nobody's driving in the express lanes because well one
they're closed part way, but two because nobody's driving in it.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
There are no trucks, no ruts or anything.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
But I decide I would rather be there. Since I've
got snow tires on the jeep, I'd rather be over there.
So I don't have any cars in front of me
or behind me. So I move over there. And so
I may to get up to forty five miles an hour,
but at least I'm passing other people and continue to
move on Monument Hills pretty bad. But then I get
into the kind of into the Springs and it just clears,
(03:12):
I mean literally clears. So now I'm doing you know,
I'm doing a one hundred and twenty miles an hour
between Springs and Pueblo, and I'm thinking, you know, I
don't want to. I'm starving because I'm not eating all
day long, and I'm thinking I'll just because I got
to post the podcast, I got to do all of
that stuff. So I think I'll just run into to
the long no, not long, the Texas Roadhouse in Pueblo,
(03:33):
Colorado at two two. But it must have been two thirty,
give me an hour and a half to have gotten
there with traffic. So let's say it's two thirty. So
I pull off the Interstate at the Texas road House
in Pueblo on a Saturday at two thirty in the afternoon,
and there's a line out the door. Really, yes, a
line out the door. So now I'm looking Mu's close
(03:55):
by here because I'm just like, oh, I don't want
to stop with Sonic. I don't want to. I don't
want to gie. I want a meal so I can
then not stop anywhere else, just eat a decent meal
and go on not to Texas Longhort or Texas Roadhouse,
but you know, at least get some protein and stuff here.
And then as I eat, I do I find a
little Mexican joint and I'm looking at the app, and
(04:19):
the app shows that rat Home Pass is raining. But
I also know that the minute the timbers are hits
thirty two or below that Raine is going to turn
into snow. And then and the truckers that are usually
on wrapt Home pass and never can get over, you know,
five miles an hour anyway. So it's like, but look,
if I go through Rocky Ford and La Hunta and
(04:39):
over to Lamar and down through that way, there's nothing,
It's clear skies. So I make the decision I'm gonna
take fifty east. So I go to fifty East. I
don't get fifteen minutes out of Pueblo and it starts
snowing like a banjie. I mean, just I'm back down
to twenty miles an hour. I get to Lamar, it's dark,
(05:02):
I'm trying, I'm bringing gas in the car. The wind's
blowing one hundred miles an hour, and then I you know,
I finally made it across the Oklahoma state line, still snowing.
I get to this little town of Boy City, and
I'm now like sixty miles from home from the hotel.
And when I when I get out of Boys City,
it's spitting snow, but it's not snowing, snowing, but the
(05:25):
roads look like they're snow packed.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So you know.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I look around, there's no cars around, so I start
tapping the brakes and I tap and I tap, and
then I hit the brakes trying to put myself into
spin because I can't figure out like it looks snowpacked,
but it's it's there's there's a total traction. I literally
stopped the car, opened the car door and get out
and put my hand down trying to figure out what
(05:49):
the hill's going on with the roadway. Roadway's dry, but
it looks snow packed. On the way back, I'm trying
to it dawns on me. Oh, I don't know what
it is. But somehow, with the way they've constructed that
highway between Boys City, Oklahoma and Guyman, Oklahoma, it looks
in the dark, it looks snowpacked, and during the day
(06:12):
it looks like white pavement and it's asphalt. It's not concrete.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So I finally decided, you know what, well, if I
die die, I just boom. So I cranked it up
back to eighty ninety miles an hour again, and finally,
after about almost eight hours, finally got there and get
up the next morning, and it was very depressing. So
I had a very long. My mom's at the stage
where she can pass away tomorrow. And she lived for
(06:41):
another two years. But it was I'm glad I went
get everything done that I needed to do, had the
conversations I needed to have, did all of that, came back,
had those conversations with my brother, and then I want
to apologize. I know we don't have tax pay relief
shots up. You don't have to email me. I'll work
on it sometimes today. Yeah, Dragon may or may not
(07:02):
work on the minion, and that's fine, But Dragon, I
both just had lousy weekends. We have really lousy weekends.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
When you break a sweat going from bed to the couch. Wow,
that was a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And then I asked Dragon a simple question because I'm
Monday's guys. I don't know about all of you, but
I checked the weather the night before because I can't
remember what the weather's gonna be, just just because I
want I want to know. Am I gonna drive the beam?
I'm gonna drive the Jeep, so I know which you
know which car I'm gonna put my stuff in the
night before, so I can just get in the car
and drive off. But Dragon doesn't do that. So Dragon
(07:43):
didn't know it was gonna be like, you know, two
degrees this morning and the wind howling and it's gonna
be cold. And so Dragon gets out and let's dragon
find out.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
My car's dead. My car's dead, batteries said, I get
in defense of my battery. If that's really a thing.
It's been dying for for quite a while. It does
not like single digit temperatures. And well today it finally
said no, I'm not starting, No, not starting. So I
had to pull my wife's jeep out because I park
(08:12):
outside because the mother in law and the wife get
the garage because they're the girls. I'm the guy that's just.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Do you park on the driveway in the street.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I'm in the street, yeah, because because they've got to
pull out of the driveway, so I can't park in
the driveway. So I pull my wife's jeep out and
you know, nose nose with mine so that I can
get the batteries jumped and freaking jeep? Who designed this?
Why is this a thing? Why is there a cover
(08:43):
over the battery? A little beauty cover? What it said? Something?
Because I don't care. I want you off. I need
to get to the get to the ports. No, this
is not okay. So I'm trying to fiddle with the
little bolts that they've got right there. They know I
can't do it, So now I'm gonna go to a
pair of pliers from inside the garage back down. Now
I'm at the street and I'm like, all right, wait,
I'm holding my phone trying to get the all right, perfect,
(09:05):
it's off now red red, black to black. And i'd
be smart like that, I'm not a complete idiot and
start my car up right away. Perfect, great, all right, Now,
I put the little beauty cover back and I just
slammed that thing and and I hand tightened that little bolt,
and I was like, all right, slam the freaking hood
back down. Drive her car back into the driveway. I
get going. I'm on my way to work. I'm on
(09:25):
twenty five. Oh, explotive. I did not say explotive. I
said something that wasn't explotive. I don't know where those
plyers are. I left those pliers in the engine bay
of my wife's jeep.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Did you go back?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I thought about it. I really did a text or something. Yes.
As soon as I got here, I said, I'm so sorry, babe.
As soon as you get up as soon as you
get to the car, I need you to open the
hood and I need you to for those players because
they're somewhere in that engine. Bay, I'm so sorry. You know,
Today's Today's really Monday. It feels like a first.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Mondy feel like it feels like the worst Monday.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Even better one of the it's really stupid here, but
even the there. We have an MP three to convert folder.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
This because I and again I hope Temper is listening
right now, because you know, the largest audio company in
the world, and what's not working.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I take audio from one computer, one system and put
it in another system. Now, instead of recording it in
real time, there's a converted folder that both of these
computers can see. Well, the next gen computer, the broadcast computer,
mine in here in in khow control does not have
(10:54):
access to that converted folder anymore.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Anymore, implying at one time it did it.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Did Oh it makes it makes life so much easier
when when that that converted folder works, because you know,
click click click click done, You've got ten minutes audio
already copied over. It's so frickishly easy. But when it's
not working.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
By the way, that Jesse's next gen crashed on Friday.
I've got to tell you that too.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Oh that sounds fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, and then I don't know why it had anything
to do here, but then it crashed or something in here.
So now I'm flying blind, so I don't know, uh,
you know, like how much time do I have left
before the segment ends? Or you know how much time
I left before the segment begins? And you know he's
(11:49):
giving me cues about spots, and it's just it was it.
Friday was a cluster too.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
And I don't know. I must be new here, but
our television computer in here, in this studio has been
down for a week. It's been down for a week, right,
and to which it's.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
A good thing we had any breaking news like you know, agreed,
President going on television and talking about how World War
three starts. We can carry it live, agreed. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, so uh, but the engineers do know, Noah and
dom Dno, they they may have to build a new
PC for it because for whatever reason, because you.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Know, we pay for cable. Uh.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I half way expected coming in this morning to have
the TV computer up and run. But you know, I
must be new here, you naive little idiot. Well, anyway,
that was our weekend? How about yours?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah? Yeah, how was how's everybody else's weekend? Huh? Was
it as good as yours? And and and now here
we are on Tuesday, having celebrated President's Day and Democrats
are all upset about President's Day. They don't. I mean,
it's just everything's insane. How many times have I said
(13:05):
that Europe is dead? One of the things that I
one of the many podcasts that I listened to, But
I I don't normally listen to Joe Rogan unless, of course,
he has a particular guest.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
On like that when he had Trump on do what
like when he had Trump on you like me?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
He had Trump on and over I'm not sure what
day it was, but he had Mike Ben's on, and
Mike Bens was going through He's he's been doing a
bunch of the he has been doing Doge work, but
he's been doing Doge like work tracking, for example, all
of the money flowing out of USA. I d that's
(13:50):
been going to UH news organizations, including news organizations like
CBS News or UH money that's been going through USAID
to places like the Tides Foundation, and then ends up
going to places like Westward right here in Denver, you know,
(14:11):
our little independent newspaper. And uh, some of the work
he's done has been picked up by someone who I
assume is based in Colorado. I can't tell from their
profile over on x UH. And and if you want
to see this story about Westward and they're receiving money
from the Tides Foundation, you can't or from subsidiaries of
(14:35):
the Tides Foundation. To be a little more accurate, then
go to my ex timeline at Michael Brown, USA, and
I've posted it there and they and that entire thread
is there, and I tagged Patty Calhoun on it just
to see if Patty would respond. Now, I haven't checked
this morning because when I got in here, Dragon was
all wound up and I didn't have time. We're wound up? Huh,
(14:59):
both were, Yeah, we were both wound up. And so
I haven't looked this morning to see if Patti's respond
to it or not. I doubt that she will, but
it's it's a great story about how I don't think
we quite realize that we're in the midst of a
Category five hurricane that hasn't quite made landfall yet. But
(15:25):
the hurricane is stirring up a bunch of feces that
is going to turn this country inside out, and we're
going to realize. I mean, look, the whole thing about
finding people that ostensibly are one hundred and fifty years
old and they're still receiving Social Security payments. It may
it may not quite be exactly that. It may be
(15:48):
that when Social Security first started that they're there their database,
for lack of a better term, they're you know, because
they didn't obviously have computers, but the records which they kept,
if people didn't have their birth date, you know, their
exact date, it would default to you know, eighteen fifty
(16:10):
eight or some you know, some odd number, and but
those have never been removed. Now we don't know that
they're actually getting checks, but in the data, in the
current database, there is a and you can find this
on my x timeline. Also you can find where people
that are a certain number of people that are one
(16:30):
hundred years old or one hundred and twenty years older,
one hundred and fifty years old are still in the
Social Security, Medicare Medicaid system that whether they're still getting
checks or not, we don't yet know, but we're uncovering
just how inefficient and ineffectual the entire government is. And
(16:52):
when you think of when you think about how much
money you pay in taxes, if if nothing else, you
should realize that we're in debt to the tune of
almost forty trillion dollars and who knows what percentage of
(17:14):
that fifty percent, I think that's actually a reasonable number
to consider, may be actually waste, fraud, and abuse half
of it, which means every penny that we've paid an
income tax, considering we borrow forty three cents of forty
seven cents whatever it is of every dollar, that means
(17:36):
that you could theoretically say every single penny that you've
paid in to taxes has been wasted, absolutely wasted, either
gone to someone who was not deserving or not entitled
to those payments, or to some fictitious person, or it
went to some in GEO that then use that to
(17:57):
propagandize us and to lie to us about what's going
on in the world. So as I'm as I'm coming
back from Oklahoma and I'm really considering everything that Trump's doing,
I would first and foremost say to all of you,
(18:19):
whatever your religion is, light a candles, say a prayer
whatever it is, for Donald Trump and for all of
the cabinet, because if they continue, which I hope they do,
down this path of uncovering this stuff and revealing all
of these things, there will be evil forces out determined
(18:42):
to shut that down, and we cannot let that happen.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Hey, Dragon, I hate to say this, but you were
definitely whipped. If it's my house, I'm parking in the garage.
Mother in law car is outside.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Oh, mister tough guy, Yeah, uh huh yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Mother in law's mid seventies scoliosis. Yes, she ain't. She
ain't parking outside, especially in a snow cold day like this.
She ain't walking down that driveway in one piece.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Although there are days when you're more than willing to
shove her down the driveway. I just wanted to say
it for you, because I know you're in your mind
you were imagining. Oops, mister red Beard, I'm sorry, but
your your mom slipped down the driveway. Mother in law's
always amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
It's a pretty sloped driveway too, so I can't have
her walking down that driveway to her car on a
day like this. It ain't happening. Sorry, and there's no
chance in hell, missus Redbeard is parking outside.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, that's that's a definite. That's a definite.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, I've got the oldest car and it's it's outside. Yep.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
So we The point I'm trying to make about, uh,
where we currently are is I've heard different talk show
hosts that I read about or that I know, and
(20:24):
some of the inside the Beltway newsletters that I still
get talk about this is. This is why the Democrats
right now so discombobulated. Well, you don't hear them. You
would think that they would recognize that it is a
(20:45):
winning argument with the American people that the things that
we're uncovering while they're shocking, they're dismaying, they're frustrating, they're maddening,
all of those things that nonetheless, this is what we wanted,
and this is what we've been wanting for decades, is
that we know the government is inefficient, ineffective, that it's fraudulent.
(21:05):
We know that our tax dollars are being misused, oftentimes
against They're taking our dollars and then using those dollars
to propagandize against us. We know all of that, and
we want to see that revealed and then revealed that's yes,
shining the giant flashlight on all of this stuff is
(21:29):
the first step. But it is only the first step
because the more difficult thing. And I think this is
what Trump recognizes. I think Trump recognizes that being the developer,
the financier, the billionaire, the guy that understands money and
(21:51):
finances and all of that, that he understands we can't
keep doing this. And as somebody point out on the
text line, and he knows that he can do it himself,
which is why he's got Elon Musk and all those
those twenty somethings out just scouring through using AI, using
whatever they can to discover and uncover these things so
(22:12):
that they can start at least. It's almost like exploratory surgery.
You know something's wrong, you've tried to diagnose that. The
doctor's done everything they can to diagnose things. They've done
everything externally they can. They've done MRIs, they've done cat scans,
they've done you know, they've done X rays, they've palpitated
every inch of your body. And yet we know there's
(22:35):
something wrong. So now it's time to cut it open
to see see what we find. And that's kind of
the phase we're in right now. But once the doctor
opens the body up and finds, oh crap, look at that, Now,
you decide what do you do with that? If it's
(22:57):
you know, if it's a cancer metastasized, if you're going
to try to excise it, you know, you're gonna have
to take that scalpel and make certain that you don't
cut off some artery or you puncture some other vital organ.
So it's going to take a lot of really delicate
(23:18):
surgery to extract all of this without creating such turmoil
that we end up in some sort of anarchy. And
the Democrats are sitting back, and all the Democrats are
doing are singing some stupid protest songs from the Depression
(23:39):
era and marching around and never saying a word like, oh,
we're actually kind of glad that you're finding this now.
I know, don't don't start at me already. I know
why they're not doing it, because this is their slush fund.
This has been their modus operandi since Woodrow Wilson, if
(24:00):
not before in some cases. So they're upset because we're
getting the truth revealed to us. But now I just
want to as much as including myself. As much as
(24:21):
we're all excited about it, I want to give us
a dose of reality. The current the current environment that
we live in is about the same as it always
has been, and we've been here before. Republicans have we
do have a trifecta. We have a trifecta right now,
(24:43):
but it's not really a governing trifecta. I heard on
the way in somebody talking about something they were calling
somebody on Fox headlines about. You know, Republicans are in
control of the House, in the Senate and the White House,
and I thought, but having control of those doesn't really
(25:05):
give you a governing trifecta because we're operating within very
narrow margins in both congressional bodies, which means that everything's
going to take longer. But it also means that while
we thought we might get let's say, a mile worth
of work done, we may only get a half mile
(25:26):
work worth of work done. And we need to be
happy about that because we're getting the work done in
the direction that we've been begging for for decades, so
we're now finally going in that direction. I just want
to realize that we may not get quite as far
as we want to go. So I want you to
think about the whole budget reconciliation and the tax code
(25:52):
reform in that context, because I want to somehow dampen
both your and my own expectations. For example, when it
comes to tax reform, I'm still bumfuzzled by this whole
idea that the continuation of the Trump tax cuts are
(26:13):
going to cost us money because those tax cuts are
the current rates by which we pay into the system.
So only unless you think, like a Democrat, oh well,
we're paying in based on these current rates, those rates
were going to expire, and so they believe that means
that you and I would be paying more taxes in
(26:35):
the future, which you could give them more money to spend. Well,
that's what would happen, But that's not a cut if
you keep the current level of income. And in fact,
I think we ought to reduce the current tax rates
for all Americans, including corporations, because we know that you
(26:57):
and I pay corporate taxes in the price of the
goods and services that we buy from those corporations. So
lest the House Committee on the Budget approved a budget
resolution last week, and then the Senate Republicans made it
clear that they want to, and they are actually prepared
to proceed with a smaller bill now with a promise
(27:21):
to pass tax reform later. And at the same time
they're doing that, it's become pretty clear that the only
legitimate chance that the House or Representatives has to pass
tax reform is as part of larger legislation that addresses
the debt ceiling, reduces spending and taxes. That's the bill
(27:42):
that the House is going to have to come to
grips with. They're going to have to do that. The
votes are I just I do not believe the votes
are likely to be there for any legislation that does
not combine all three elements. So they're going to have
to do all three. And the numerical reality of scoring
(28:02):
tax reform is that there is appetite for about twice
as much in tax reductions in the neighborhood, say ten
trillion dollars over what the next decade, as there is
for spending reductions or increased revenues. But as a practical matter,
that means there will be steady pressure, mostly on House
(28:25):
Republicans to find increasing amounts of spending reductions or you know,
offsets revenue increases that are mostly driven by repealing tax
exemptions and exclusions. Now I don't like that. I'm just
telling you what I think the political reality is in
DC right now. Now, it may help to know that
(28:47):
the federal government spent X number of dollars last year.
Do you know what that number is? You know, I
keep talking about a three or four trillion dollar budget
that we used to have before COVID and everything else,
and before Biden came along and did all the you know,
all the spending that he did along with some Republicans.
By the way, the federal government spent about six point
(29:12):
seven five trillion dollars last year. That is a freaking
unbelievable number. Six point seven five trillion dollars. Now, almost
all of that went to transfer payments, a redistribution of wealth, Medicare, Medicaid,
Social Security, and what else, interest payments on the debt.
(29:33):
Less than a third a six point seven five trillion
dollars went to discretionary spending, about a trillion dollars each
to defense spending, and then the entirety of whatever else
we spend on domestic spending. Let me put it in
other words, the chances of offsetting tax reform by meaningfully
(29:54):
reducing that discretionary spending, I think is zero, absolutely zero.
And I think likewise, the chance of offsetting tax reform
by reducing defense spending is also about zero. And while
I would say mostly for political reasons, I would say
also because when you look at yesterday, I ran across
(30:20):
a guy that's been studying ship building ship building, and
the Chinese Communist Party has about a three hundred greater
capacity for shipbuilding than we do, three times what we
(30:42):
can do. And the other thing that I learned is
that every and it's and it is comparing apples to apples,
it's not comparing you know, commercial ship building and military
ship building combines solely to our military ship building. Because
what the Chinese do is the Chinese Communist Party requires
(31:05):
all of the private ship building companies they're just building,
you know, cargo ships or whatever, or even ferries, whatever
it might be, that those be built to military standards
so that if they need to convert all of those
commercial ships to a military use, then they have the
kind of holes and everything else they need that they
(31:27):
can transfer if they need to, if they need to
haul a bunch of tanks over to Taiwan or to
the Philippines or Japan or South Korea. They can call
on all their commercial ships to do that. Think about that.
So we have to increase our defense spending. Now, we
can offset some of that increase by more effectively spending
(31:48):
defense spending, but it's not going to make up for everything.
So the chances of offsetting tax reform by reducing transfer payments,
which the President has said is out of bounds. I
think it's also zero. But Republicans seem anxious to touch
that third rail, and they seem to be prepared to
(32:12):
make Republicans walk the plank, so to speak, and vote
on medicaid spending reductions that probably have no chance of
becoming a law. Why because when push comes to shove,
some of those Republicans are going to balk and we're
not going to get any sort of medicaid before and
push comes to shove. On way past a break.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Good morning, Michael and Dragon. I'm glad you're better. Dragon.
This is your favorite jukubern Uh too bad, you guys said,
are bad. I'm sorry about that, but Dragon, you are
the men. Wherever the previous start back, he's up free
and you are a true men.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
That's what real men do.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
That's just the dragon that I I know. That's the
dragon I know so real. Quickly I think this, I
want to kind of skip through my notes. The third
and final pathn I think the one that's most likely
to occur is, rather than we getting fully baked tax reform,
I've heard many people say to me over the past
(33:20):
four or five days that, oh, my gosh, aren't you excited.
We may eliminate the income tax, we may get a
flat tax, we might get a consumption tax, a national
sales tax. Yes, but not now. I think we've just started.
I think we've opened the door for it, but I
don't think we're going to get it. So I think
(33:40):
the most likely is that rather than getting this fully
baked tax reform including one or some of those things,
we might just get an extension of the current tax
cuts and the Jobs Act of twenty seventeen. The tax
extenders with sidestep all the tricky parts of that legislative process.
(34:02):
They kicked the can down the road again, but it
would allow Team Trump to declare victory now and then
again perhaps victory another year or two from now, or
perhaps maybe all of this is just preparatory to a
wholesale rewrite of the tax code in the next Congress.
(34:23):
So there are as I just want to emphasize, there
are insufficient votes in the House for any tax legislation
that does not combine spending reductions, some deminimous tax reform,
and of course the debt ceiling, which I wish we'd
just get rid of. The debt ceiling. It's a it's
(34:43):
a fantasy anyway, it's it's a completely meaningless thing, and
it gives the Democrats something to always argue about. I
heard at least a dozen times on the radios I
was driving back and forth Oklahoma about some Democrat Yahoo
talking about we can't risk the full faith and credit
of the United States. We risk the full faith in
credit of the United States every time we spend a
dollar we have to borrow. We risk it all the time,
(35:07):
and nobody's going to default. And by the way, if
you start looking, there are a lot of domestic these
banks too big to fail, and private investors there are beginning.
I don't know if we've actually reached the tipping point
yet or not, but there are more people and institutions
in this country that own our debt than some foreign countries. Yeah,
(35:33):
so there's a lot going on in terms of Trump
looking at the financial condition of this nation and perhaps
beginning to think, I'm going to figure out a way
through a combination of spending cuts, tax reforms, an abolition
of the income tax and going to a consumption tax,
whatever it might be, and this sovereign wealth fund that
(35:59):
he wants to create. Think about that. You start throwing
in the what's the value of the Grand Canyon, what's
the value of the Yosemite National Park or Rocky Mountain
National Park. You put all of that into a solign
sovereign wealth fund, you suddenly change the entire balance sheet
of the of the country. Yeah, that may be what's
(36:23):
going on.
Good morning, Michael and Dragon. I awakened it for.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
And how Amongst my first thoughts was I winter if
Michael got to see his mom, and I sure hope
that Dragon feels better.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Well, you got me.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I really am a goober. You know that's that actually
means a lot. Yeah, I know, I know it's it's
you're being funny too. But I did get to see
my mom, and I'd rather not talk about it. I uh,
(00:36):
it was. It was a horrible drive down, despite using
the KdV R Pinpoint weather app so I could decide
which route to take. Is I as I was driving?
I mean, I'm looking and I'm looking at the storms
and I'm trying to figure out okay, and and by
the way, you know, so I finished the program on
on Saturday. Uh, what's your name? Dragon?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I still wore here.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You know what's weird this? I may need a new
cable because everything's got that.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Crackly noisy tenn sound to it.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yes, real tenny sounds, So I must need a new.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Maybe it's just you, you.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Know, it could be me. It could be that you know,
you just sounded like crap for years. Well, maybe I
just need to clean my ears. Out maybe that's it.
But I I get in the car Saturday after I
finished the show to make what should be a five
and a half hour drive, and about eight hours later
I finally get there because I first, the first mistake
(01:37):
I make is now I leave here at like right
at one o'clock, I mean two, you're gone. Yeah, but
you know the show if I told because Damien was
filling in Saturday, I said, now, listen, I got to
pack up and get out of here. We don't have
time to talk. I got it. I got to hit
the road, and you know, told him why, and he's like, yeah,
find just hang up and go. So I had everything
packed up and I and I jump in the jeep
(01:58):
and I I had South twenty five and Tamroyd sent
me a text and said it's snowing like crazy outside.
And sure enough, it was snowing like it was snowing
like crazy here at studios. I get to about Lincoln
Boulevard on the twenty five South and it's there's nothing.
It's like dry highway.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, And so now I'm and I know it's against
the law, but cost my cares. So now I've got
my phone open over here, so I and I get
the app open so I can see where where the
storms are moving. And it looks good until you get
to Monument and sure enough you get south of the castle
of Castle Rock and the roads turn pretty snow packed.
And so now I'm driving about forty miles an hour,
(02:37):
and nobody's driving in the express lanes because well one
they're closed part way, but two because nobody's driving in it.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
There are no trucks, no ruts or anything.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
But I decide I would rather be there. Since I've
got snow tires on the jeep, I'd rather be over there.
So I don't have any cars in front of me
or behind me. So I move over there. And so
I may to get up to forty five miles an hour,
but at least I'm passing other people and continue to
move on Monument Hills pretty bad. But then I get
into the kind of into the Springs and it just clears,
(03:12):
I mean literally clears. So now I'm doing you know,
I'm doing a one hundred and twenty miles an hour
between Springs and Pueblo, and I'm thinking, you know, I
don't want to. I'm starving because I'm not eating all
day long, and I'm thinking I'll just because I got
to post the podcast, I got to do all of
that stuff. So I think I'll just run into to
the long no, not long, the Texas Roadhouse in Pueblo,
(03:33):
Colorado at two two. But it must have been two thirty,
give me an hour and a half to have gotten
there with traffic. So let's say it's two thirty. So
I pull off the Interstate at the Texas road House
in Pueblo on a Saturday at two thirty in the afternoon,
and there's a line out the door. Really, yes, a
line out the door. So now I'm looking Mu's close
(03:55):
by here because I'm just like, oh, I don't want
to stop with Sonic. I don't want to. I don't
want to gie. I want a meal so I can
then not stop anywhere else, just eat a decent meal
and go on not to Texas Longhort or Texas Roadhouse,
but you know, at least get some protein and stuff here.
And then as I eat, I do I find a
little Mexican joint and I'm looking at the app, and
(04:19):
the app shows that rat Home Pass is raining. But
I also know that the minute the timbers are hits
thirty two or below that Raine is going to turn
into snow. And then and the truckers that are usually
on wrapt Home pass and never can get over, you know,
five miles an hour anyway. So it's like, but look,
if I go through Rocky Ford and La Hunta and
(04:39):
over to Lamar and down through that way, there's nothing,
It's clear skies. So I make the decision I'm gonna
take fifty east. So I go to fifty East. I
don't get fifteen minutes out of Pueblo and it starts
snowing like a banjie. I mean, just I'm back down
to twenty miles an hour. I get to Lamar, it's dark,
(05:02):
I'm trying, I'm bringing gas in the car. The wind's
blowing one hundred miles an hour, and then I you know,
I finally made it across the Oklahoma state line, still snowing.
I get to this little town of Boy City, and
I'm now like sixty miles from home from the hotel.
And when I when I get out of Boys City,
it's spitting snow, but it's not snowing, snowing, but the
(05:25):
roads look like they're snow packed.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So you know.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I look around, there's no cars around, so I start
tapping the brakes and I tap and I tap, and
then I hit the brakes trying to put myself into
spin because I can't figure out like it looks snowpacked,
but it's it's there's there's a total traction. I literally
stopped the car, opened the car door and get out
and put my hand down trying to figure out what
(05:49):
the hill's going on with the roadway. Roadway's dry, but
it looks snow packed. On the way back, I'm trying
to it dawns on me. Oh, I don't know what
it is. But somehow, with the way they've constructed that
highway between Boys City, Oklahoma and Guyman, Oklahoma, it looks
in the dark, it looks snowpacked, and during the day
(06:12):
it looks like white pavement and it's asphalt. It's not concrete.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So I finally decided, you know what, well, if I
die die, I just boom. So I cranked it up
back to eighty ninety miles an hour again, and finally,
after about almost eight hours, finally got there and get
up the next morning, and it was very depressing. So
I had a very long. My mom's at the stage
where she can pass away tomorrow. And she lived for
(06:41):
another two years. But it was I'm glad I went
get everything done that I needed to do, had the
conversations I needed to have, did all of that, came back,
had those conversations with my brother, and then I want
to apologize. I know we don't have tax pay relief
shots up. You don't have to email me. I'll work
on it sometimes today. Yeah, Dragon may or may not
(07:02):
work on the minion, and that's fine, But Dragon, I
both just had lousy weekends. We have really lousy weekends.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
When you break a sweat going from bed to the couch. Wow,
that was a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
And then I asked Dragon a simple question because I'm
Monday's guys. I don't know about all of you, but
I checked the weather the night before because I can't
remember what the weather's gonna be, just just because I
want I want to know. Am I gonna drive the beam?
I'm gonna drive the Jeep, so I know which you
know which car I'm gonna put my stuff in the
night before, so I can just get in the car
and drive off. But Dragon doesn't do that. So Dragon
(07:43):
didn't know it was gonna be like, you know, two
degrees this morning and the wind howling and it's gonna
be cold. And so Dragon gets out and let's dragon
find out.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
My car's dead. My car's dead, batteries said, I get
in defense of my battery. If that's really a thing.
It's been dying for for quite a while. It does
not like single digit temperatures. And well today it finally
said no, I'm not starting, No, not starting. So I
had to pull my wife's jeep out because I park
(08:12):
outside because the mother in law and the wife get
the garage because they're the girls. I'm the guy that's just.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Do you park on the driveway in the street.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I'm in the street, yeah, because because they've got to
pull out of the driveway, so I can't park in
the driveway. So I pull my wife's jeep out and
you know, nose nose with mine so that I can
get the batteries jumped and freaking jeep? Who designed this?
Why is this a thing? Why is there a cover
(08:43):
over the battery? A little beauty cover? What it said? Something?
Because I don't care. I want you off. I need
to get to the get to the ports. No, this
is not okay. So I'm trying to fiddle with the
little bolts that they've got right there. They know I
can't do it, So now I'm gonna go to a
pair of pliers from inside the garage back down. Now
I'm at the street and I'm like, all right, wait,
I'm holding my phone trying to get the all right, perfect,
(09:05):
it's off now red red, black to black. And i'd
be smart like that, I'm not a complete idiot and
start my car up right away. Perfect, great, all right, Now,
I put the little beauty cover back and I just
slammed that thing and and I hand tightened that little bolt,
and I was like, all right, slam the freaking hood
back down. Drive her car back into the driveway. I
get going. I'm on my way to work. I'm on
(09:25):
twenty five. Oh, explotive. I did not say explotive. I
said something that wasn't explotive. I don't know where those
plyers are. I left those pliers in the engine bay
of my wife's jeep.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Did you go back?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I thought about it. I really did a text or something. Yes.
As soon as I got here, I said, I'm so sorry, babe.
As soon as you get up as soon as you
get to the car, I need you to open the
hood and I need you to for those players because
they're somewhere in that engine. Bay, I'm so sorry. You know,
Today's Today's really Monday. It feels like a first.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Mondy feel like it feels like the worst Monday.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Even better one of the it's really stupid here, but
even the there. We have an MP three to convert folder.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
This because I and again I hope Temper is listening
right now, because you know, the largest audio company in
the world, and what's not working.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I take audio from one computer, one system and put
it in another system. Now, instead of recording it in
real time, there's a converted folder that both of these
computers can see. Well, the next gen computer, the broadcast computer,
mine in here in in khow control does not have
(10:54):
access to that converted folder anymore.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Anymore, implying at one time it did it.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Did Oh it makes it makes life so much easier
when when that that converted folder works, because you know,
click click click click done, You've got ten minutes audio
already copied over. It's so frickishly easy. But when it's
not working.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
By the way, that Jesse's next gen crashed on Friday.
I've got to tell you that too.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Oh that sounds fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, and then I don't know why it had anything
to do here, but then it crashed or something in here.
So now I'm flying blind, so I don't know, uh,
you know, like how much time do I have left
before the segment ends? Or you know how much time
I left before the segment begins? And you know he's
(11:49):
giving me cues about spots, and it's just it was it.
Friday was a cluster too.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
And I don't know. I must be new here, but
our television computer in here, in this studio has been
down for a week. It's been down for a week, right,
and to which it's.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
A good thing we had any breaking news like you know, agreed,
President going on television and talking about how World War
three starts. We can carry it live, agreed. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, so uh, but the engineers do know, Noah and
dom Dno, they they may have to build a new
PC for it because for whatever reason, because you.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Know, we pay for cable. Uh.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I half way expected coming in this morning to have
the TV computer up and run. But you know, I
must be new here, you naive little idiot. Well, anyway,
that was our weekend? How about yours?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah? Yeah, how was how's everybody else's weekend? Huh? Was
it as good as yours? And and and now here
we are on Tuesday, having celebrated President's Day and Democrats
are all upset about President's Day. They don't. I mean,
it's just everything's insane. How many times have I said
(13:05):
that Europe is dead? One of the things that I
one of the many podcasts that I listened to, But
I I don't normally listen to Joe Rogan unless, of course,
he has a particular guest.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
On like that when he had Trump on do what
like when he had Trump on you like me?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
He had Trump on and over I'm not sure what
day it was, but he had Mike Ben's on, and
Mike Bens was going through He's he's been doing a
bunch of the he has been doing Doge work, but
he's been doing Doge like work tracking, for example, all
of the money flowing out of USA. I d that's
(13:50):
been going to UH news organizations, including news organizations like
CBS News or UH money that's been going through USAID
to places like the Tides Foundation, and then ends up
going to places like Westward right here in Denver, you know,
(14:11):
our little independent newspaper. And uh, some of the work
he's done has been picked up by someone who I
assume is based in Colorado. I can't tell from their
profile over on x UH. And and if you want
to see this story about Westward and they're receiving money
from the Tides Foundation, you can't or from subsidiaries of
(14:35):
the Tides Foundation. To be a little more accurate, then
go to my ex timeline at Michael Brown, USA, and
I've posted it there and they and that entire thread
is there, and I tagged Patty Calhoun on it just
to see if Patty would respond. Now, I haven't checked
this morning because when I got in here, Dragon was
all wound up and I didn't have time. We're wound up? Huh,
(14:59):
both were, Yeah, we were both wound up. And so
I haven't looked this morning to see if Patti's respond
to it or not. I doubt that she will, but
it's it's a great story about how I don't think
we quite realize that we're in the midst of a
Category five hurricane that hasn't quite made landfall yet. But
(15:25):
the hurricane is stirring up a bunch of feces that
is going to turn this country inside out, and we're
going to realize. I mean, look, the whole thing about
finding people that ostensibly are one hundred and fifty years
old and they're still receiving Social Security payments. It may
it may not quite be exactly that. It may be
(15:48):
that when Social Security first started that they're there their database,
for lack of a better term, they're you know, because
they didn't obviously have computers, but the records which they kept,
if people didn't have their birth date, you know, their
exact date, it would default to you know, eighteen fifty
(16:10):
eight or some you know, some odd number, and but
those have never been removed. Now we don't know that
they're actually getting checks, but in the data, in the
current database, there is a and you can find this
on my x timeline. Also you can find where people
that are a certain number of people that are one
(16:30):
hundred years old or one hundred and twenty years older,
one hundred and fifty years old are still in the
Social Security, Medicare Medicaid system that whether they're still getting
checks or not, we don't yet know, but we're uncovering
just how inefficient and ineffectual the entire government is. And
(16:52):
when you think of when you think about how much
money you pay in taxes, if if nothing else, you
should realize that we're in debt to the tune of
almost forty trillion dollars and who knows what percentage of
(17:14):
that fifty percent, I think that's actually a reasonable number
to consider, may be actually waste, fraud, and abuse half
of it, which means every penny that we've paid an
income tax, considering we borrow forty three cents of forty
seven cents whatever it is of every dollar, that means
(17:36):
that you could theoretically say every single penny that you've
paid in to taxes has been wasted, absolutely wasted, either
gone to someone who was not deserving or not entitled
to those payments, or to some fictitious person, or it
went to some in GEO that then use that to
(17:57):
propagandize us and to lie to us about what's going
on in the world. So as I'm as I'm coming
back from Oklahoma and I'm really considering everything that Trump's doing,
I would first and foremost say to all of you,
(18:19):
whatever your religion is, light a candles, say a prayer
whatever it is, for Donald Trump and for all of
the cabinet, because if they continue, which I hope they do,
down this path of uncovering this stuff and revealing all
of these things, there will be evil forces out determined
(18:42):
to shut that down, and we cannot let that happen.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Hey, Dragon, I hate to say this, but you were
definitely whipped. If it's my house, I'm parking in the garage.
Mother in law car is outside.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Oh, mister tough guy, Yeah, uh huh yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Mother in law's mid seventies scoliosis. Yes, she ain't. She
ain't parking outside, especially in a snow cold day like this.
She ain't walking down that driveway in one piece.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Although there are days when you're more than willing to
shove her down the driveway. I just wanted to say
it for you, because I know you're in your mind
you were imagining. Oops, mister red Beard, I'm sorry, but
your your mom slipped down the driveway. Mother in law's
always amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
It's a pretty sloped driveway too, so I can't have
her walking down that driveway to her car on a
day like this. It ain't happening. Sorry, and there's no
chance in hell, missus Redbeard is parking outside.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, that's that's a definite. That's a definite.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, I've got the oldest car and it's it's outside. Yep.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
So we The point I'm trying to make about, uh,
where we currently are is I've heard different talk show
hosts that I read about or that I know, and
(20:24):
some of the inside the Beltway newsletters that I still
get talk about this is. This is why the Democrats
right now so discombobulated. Well, you don't hear them. You
would think that they would recognize that it is a
(20:45):
winning argument with the American people that the things that
we're uncovering while they're shocking, they're dismaying, they're frustrating, they're maddening,
all of those things that nonetheless, this is what we wanted,
and this is what we've been wanting for decades, is
that we know the government is inefficient, ineffective, that it's fraudulent.
(21:05):
We know that our tax dollars are being misused, oftentimes
against They're taking our dollars and then using those dollars
to propagandize against us. We know all of that, and
we want to see that revealed and then revealed that's yes,
shining the giant flashlight on all of this stuff is
(21:29):
the first step. But it is only the first step
because the more difficult thing. And I think this is
what Trump recognizes. I think Trump recognizes that being the developer,
the financier, the billionaire, the guy that understands money and
(21:51):
finances and all of that, that he understands we can't
keep doing this. And as somebody point out on the
text line, and he knows that he can do it himself,
which is why he's got Elon Musk and all those
those twenty somethings out just scouring through using AI, using
whatever they can to discover and uncover these things so
(22:12):
that they can start at least. It's almost like exploratory surgery.
You know something's wrong, you've tried to diagnose that. The
doctor's done everything they can to diagnose things. They've done
everything externally they can. They've done MRIs, they've done cat scans,
they've done you know, they've done X rays, they've palpitated
every inch of your body. And yet we know there's
(22:35):
something wrong. So now it's time to cut it open
to see see what we find. And that's kind of
the phase we're in right now. But once the doctor
opens the body up and finds, oh crap, look at that, Now,
you decide what do you do with that? If it's
(22:57):
you know, if it's a cancer metastasized, if you're going
to try to excise it, you know, you're gonna have
to take that scalpel and make certain that you don't
cut off some artery or you puncture some other vital organ.
So it's going to take a lot of really delicate
(23:18):
surgery to extract all of this without creating such turmoil
that we end up in some sort of anarchy. And
the Democrats are sitting back, and all the Democrats are
doing are singing some stupid protest songs from the Depression
(23:39):
era and marching around and never saying a word like, oh,
we're actually kind of glad that you're finding this now.
I know, don't don't start at me already. I know
why they're not doing it, because this is their slush fund.
This has been their modus operandi since Woodrow Wilson, if
(24:00):
not before in some cases. So they're upset because we're
getting the truth revealed to us. But now I just
want to as much as including myself. As much as
(24:21):
we're all excited about it, I want to give us
a dose of reality. The current the current environment that
we live in is about the same as it always
has been, and we've been here before. Republicans have we
do have a trifecta. We have a trifecta right now,
(24:43):
but it's not really a governing trifecta. I heard on
the way in somebody talking about something they were calling
somebody on Fox headlines about. You know, Republicans are in
control of the House, in the Senate and the White House,
and I thought, but having control of those doesn't really
(25:05):
give you a governing trifecta because we're operating within very
narrow margins in both congressional bodies, which means that everything's
going to take longer. But it also means that while
we thought we might get let's say, a mile worth
of work done, we may only get a half mile
(25:26):
work worth of work done. And we need to be
happy about that because we're getting the work done in
the direction that we've been begging for for decades, so
we're now finally going in that direction. I just want
to realize that we may not get quite as far
as we want to go. So I want you to
think about the whole budget reconciliation and the tax code
(25:52):
reform in that context, because I want to somehow dampen
both your and my own expectations. For example, when it
comes to tax reform, I'm still bumfuzzled by this whole
idea that the continuation of the Trump tax cuts are
(26:13):
going to cost us money because those tax cuts are
the current rates by which we pay into the system.
So only unless you think, like a Democrat, oh well,
we're paying in based on these current rates, those rates
were going to expire, and so they believe that means
that you and I would be paying more taxes in
(26:35):
the future, which you could give them more money to spend. Well,
that's what would happen, But that's not a cut if
you keep the current level of income. And in fact,
I think we ought to reduce the current tax rates
for all Americans, including corporations, because we know that you
(26:57):
and I pay corporate taxes in the price of the
goods and services that we buy from those corporations. So
lest the House Committee on the Budget approved a budget
resolution last week, and then the Senate Republicans made it
clear that they want to, and they are actually prepared
to proceed with a smaller bill now with a promise
(27:21):
to pass tax reform later. And at the same time
they're doing that, it's become pretty clear that the only
legitimate chance that the House or Representatives has to pass
tax reform is as part of larger legislation that addresses
the debt ceiling, reduces spending and taxes. That's the bill
(27:42):
that the House is going to have to come to
grips with. They're going to have to do that. The
votes are I just I do not believe the votes
are likely to be there for any legislation that does
not combine all three elements. So they're going to have
to do all three. And the numerical reality of scoring
(28:02):
tax reform is that there is appetite for about twice
as much in tax reductions in the neighborhood, say ten
trillion dollars over what the next decade, as there is
for spending reductions or increased revenues. But as a practical matter,
that means there will be steady pressure, mostly on House
(28:25):
Republicans to find increasing amounts of spending reductions or you know,
offsets revenue increases that are mostly driven by repealing tax
exemptions and exclusions. Now I don't like that. I'm just
telling you what I think the political reality is in
DC right now. Now, it may help to know that
(28:47):
the federal government spent X number of dollars last year.
Do you know what that number is? You know, I
keep talking about a three or four trillion dollar budget
that we used to have before COVID and everything else,
and before Biden came along and did all the you know,
all the spending that he did along with some Republicans.
By the way, the federal government spent about six point
(29:12):
seven five trillion dollars last year. That is a freaking
unbelievable number. Six point seven five trillion dollars. Now, almost
all of that went to transfer payments, a redistribution of wealth, Medicare, Medicaid,
Social Security, and what else, interest payments on the debt.
(29:33):
Less than a third a six point seven five trillion
dollars went to discretionary spending, about a trillion dollars each
to defense spending, and then the entirety of whatever else
we spend on domestic spending. Let me put it in
other words, the chances of offsetting tax reform by meaningfully
(29:54):
reducing that discretionary spending, I think is zero, absolutely zero.
And I think likewise, the chance of offsetting tax reform
by reducing defense spending is also about zero. And while
I would say mostly for political reasons, I would say
also because when you look at yesterday, I ran across
(30:20):
a guy that's been studying ship building ship building, and
the Chinese Communist Party has about a three hundred greater
capacity for shipbuilding than we do, three times what we
(30:42):
can do. And the other thing that I learned is
that every and it's and it is comparing apples to apples,
it's not comparing you know, commercial ship building and military
ship building combines solely to our military ship building. Because
what the Chinese do is the Chinese Communist Party requires
(31:05):
all of the private ship building companies they're just building,
you know, cargo ships or whatever, or even ferries, whatever
it might be, that those be built to military standards
so that if they need to convert all of those
commercial ships to a military use, then they have the
kind of holes and everything else they need that they
(31:27):
can transfer if they need to, if they need to
haul a bunch of tanks over to Taiwan or to
the Philippines or Japan or South Korea. They can call
on all their commercial ships to do that. Think about that.
So we have to increase our defense spending. Now, we
can offset some of that increase by more effectively spending
(31:48):
defense spending, but it's not going to make up for everything.
So the chances of offsetting tax reform by reducing transfer payments,
which the President has said is out of bounds. I
think it's also zero. But Republicans seem anxious to touch
that third rail, and they seem to be prepared to
(32:12):
make Republicans walk the plank, so to speak, and vote
on medicaid spending reductions that probably have no chance of
becoming a law. Why because when push comes to shove,
some of those Republicans are going to balk and we're
not going to get any sort of medicaid before and
push comes to shove. On way past a break.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Good morning, Michael and Dragon. I'm glad you're better. Dragon.
This is your favorite jukubern Uh too bad, you guys said,
are bad. I'm sorry about that, but Dragon, you are
the men. Wherever the previous start back, he's up free
and you are a true men.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
That's what real men do.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
That's just the dragon that I I know. That's the
dragon I know so real. Quickly I think this, I
want to kind of skip through my notes. The third
and final pathn I think the one that's most likely
to occur is, rather than we getting fully baked tax reform,
I've heard many people say to me over the past
(33:20):
four or five days that, oh, my gosh, aren't you excited.
We may eliminate the income tax, we may get a
flat tax, we might get a consumption tax, a national
sales tax. Yes, but not now. I think we've just started.
I think we've opened the door for it, but I
don't think we're going to get it. So I think
(33:40):
the most likely is that rather than getting this fully
baked tax reform including one or some of those things,
we might just get an extension of the current tax
cuts and the Jobs Act of twenty seventeen. The tax
extenders with sidestep all the tricky parts of that legislative process.
(34:02):
They kicked the can down the road again, but it
would allow Team Trump to declare victory now and then
again perhaps victory another year or two from now, or
perhaps maybe all of this is just preparatory to a
wholesale rewrite of the tax code in the next Congress.
(34:23):
So there are as I just want to emphasize, there
are insufficient votes in the House for any tax legislation
that does not combine spending reductions, some deminimous tax reform,
and of course the debt ceiling, which I wish we'd
just get rid of. The debt ceiling. It's a it's
(34:43):
a fantasy anyway, it's it's a completely meaningless thing, and
it gives the Democrats something to always argue about. I
heard at least a dozen times on the radios I
was driving back and forth Oklahoma about some Democrat Yahoo
talking about we can't risk the full faith and credit
of the United States. We risk the full faith in
credit of the United States every time we spend a
dollar we have to borrow. We risk it all the time,
(35:07):
and nobody's going to default. And by the way, if
you start looking, there are a lot of domestic these
banks too big to fail, and private investors there are beginning.
I don't know if we've actually reached the tipping point
yet or not, but there are more people and institutions
in this country that own our debt than some foreign countries. Yeah,
(35:33):
so there's a lot going on in terms of Trump
looking at the financial condition of this nation and perhaps
beginning to think, I'm going to figure out a way
through a combination of spending cuts, tax reforms, an abolition
of the income tax and going to a consumption tax,
whatever it might be, and this sovereign wealth fund that
(35:59):
he wants to create. Think about that. You start throwing
in the what's the value of the Grand Canyon, what's
the value of the Yosemite National Park or Rocky Mountain
National Park. You put all of that into a solign
sovereign wealth fund, you suddenly change the entire balance sheet
of the of the country. Yeah, that may be what's
(36:23):
going on.
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